Locations - Somerset

Photographs

Shops

BATH.Cater, Stoffell and Fortt, High Street. "We have briefly referred to the completion of the handsome premises in High-street which have been absolutely transformed from the 'Bath Drapery Bazar', vice The Greyhound... Provisions and drugs are, perhaps, somewhat incongruous companions, and it may be that this prompted the placing of the hansdome cash desks between these two departments. This desk will be fitted with Lamson's Store Service System, as used at No. 20, High-street." Bath Chronicle, 15 Nov. 1894, p. 5

BATH.James Colmer, Union Street. Pneumatic tube system. Cash office was situated on the top of the building
inside the offices. Bath Chronicle, 18 May 2004, p.10

BATH. Evans & Owen. "It
consisted of large wooden balls which one had to screw together joining
the two halves, after first placing the cash and bill inside. They were
then sent along tracks to the various departments from the little cash
desk which one had to climb into via an iron ladder." Bath Chronicle,
18 May 2004, p.10

BATH. Shop on Milsom Street (Evans
& Owen?). "I hadn't really expected to find that wonderful
shop still there, near the Turkish Baths where customers handed over their
money which was screwed into a wooden ball and by some magic this was
sent travelling overhead, along a wire track, to some very dignified looking
cashiers who sat looking down on the proceedings." Bath Chronicle,
8 May 2003, p.11

BATH.Mitchells (haberdashers),
Southgate Street. "They had those little cash boxes which were
screwed into units on the ceiling and then hurtled across the shop to
the cashier like trolley-buses." Bath Chronicle, 11 Sep. 1998, p.27. "I recall shopping with my mother in about the mid 1920s at a shop
called Mitchells.. I was fascinated by the cash system from counter to
cash desk in tubing that ran overhead. As far as I remember it was called
Lampson Paragon Pneumatic tube type system. Ibid., 7 May 2004, p.10

GLASTONBURY. Co-op, High Street. "The Glastonbury and Street Co-op was next. The original building was modernized just before the war. An overhead wire system conveyed the cash to the cash desk." Glastonbury Conservation Society website

MIDSOMER NORTON.Co-op. "When
you bought anything, the assistant would put your money and the invoice
in a canister, which was then attached to a wire above his head. The canister
would whizz across the ceiling to the cash office. A few seconds later,
it would come whizzing back with any change needed and the invoice stamped
'paid'." Woman's Weekly, 27 June 2006, p.33

WELLINGTON.Co-op, North Street
(now Belvedere Court). "[In 1928], Win Troake was in the office
which was connected with each counter by an overhead cash system."
"I well remember the overhead cash system being used. The counter
assistant would put your money and the amount owed in a little container,
pull a wire, and it would be whisked to the office where your change would
be made up and returned to the counter with your divi cheque." Wellington
Weekly News, 8 June 2005, p.8

WESTON SUPER MARE.E.M. Trevor. "I used to work in E M Trevor, opposite Colmers. I sat at the till in the office at the bottom of the chute putting the change in and stamping the receipts!" Jill Hulin on Walker and Ling Facebook page
• "When I worked in Trevors (Saturday office girl, 1972). Used these tubes to send customers change." Diane Walton on Walker and Ling Facebook page

WESTON SUPER MARE.Walker and Ling, 84-86 High Street. "These Lamson tubes have been carrying change and receipts at Walker & Ling for over 50 years. The pipes link to every department on the shop floor and all meet upstairs in the office. There's only one tube working now, but we use it every day. The other tubes are blocked with old canisters and old shillings! The engine has not been serviced since around 1993!" Walker and Ling Facebook page with photographs.
• "I used to work in the office and whenever a canister came up, it made me jump, even after five years when you think I’d be used to it!! It was all working then, but that was nearly 30 years ago." Sue Price on Walker and Ling Facebook page

YEOVIL. Main Co-op, Middle Street. Wire system in 1950s. ?Three lines. Tony Jervis
• "Men in suits always served behind the counters, wrote out your purchases on the triple invoice pad then sending the top copy to the cashier who was housed in a cubicle the size of a telephone box with a glass window having a cut out to pass your money through (only cash in those days, credit/debit cards were unheard of and never even imagined). The invoice arrived to the cashier by whizzing in a container on a wire operated by the man at the counter which was the most thrilling part of the experience in the store for us boys." Roger Froude. Shopping trip to Yeovil in the 1950s

YEOVIL.Eli Wilson & Sons. "The second firm in Yeovil to institute the overhead cash railway system is Messrs. Eli Wilson & Sons, in whose extensive premises this up-to-date method of dealing with customers' payments is now adopted." Western Chronicle, 3 Feb. 1905

indicates systems which are still there (as far as I know) though they may not be working.